Starmont Foods Classes Jazz Up Desserts with Vegetables

As school budgets tighten, family and consumer science (FCS) courses are often cut.  However, ask any FCS teacher (or member of Food & Fitness) and he or she will certainly enlighten you to the benefits of such education.

FCS classes are a natural fit with the NE Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative.  Students are empowered with skills needed to cook for themselves and are able to more carefully decide what goes into their bodies.  Lessons about well-balanced meals and good nutrition provided by FCS teachers further enable students to make the right decisions.

Starmont FCS Teacher, Jan Murray approached FFI AmeriCorps Resource Contact Elizabeth Makarewicz, about teaching a dessert lesson for her Foods I class.  

With a touch of creativity and advice from Mrs. Murray, Makarewicz chose two recipes that would utilize veggies— beet chocolate cake and squash quick bread.  The lesson took place over three days.  One the first day, students chopped, cooked, and pureed beets and squash in preparation for the baking.  The vegetables were blended into batter and baked on the second day.  And on the third day, they tasted.

Impressions?  Though students were initially tentative about the desserts baked with mush that reminded them of baby food, in the end, they hardly noticed the purees.

Tag: schoolwellness